Microsoft Inspire 2021. Consider us inspired…

Well, that’s a wrap for #MSInspire this year.

It’s safe to say that as always the event delivered, and delivered big!

Microsoft Viva & Microsoft Teams

There has been an increase of over 300% of users and organisations signing up to the Teams apps over the past year taking overall users to 145 million plus, and with the launch of #MicrosoftViva which was also announced at #MSInspire, acceleration is only getting faster and faster: “We can never go back”, Nadella remarked. In line with the Microsoft Viva announcement, Akari have launched workshops which are expert guided. These workshops are available now and will provide incredible knowledge on how Viva can as Satya Nadella put it so snugly: “bring together communications, learning, well-being and knowledge”.

Power Platform

Nick Parker and Satya Nadella both spoke about the incredible potential of Microsoft Cloud. #Sustainability is built on trusted Microsoft technologies including, Azure, Microsoft Dataverse, Power Platform and Power BI.  At Akari we have worked closely with customers in the Public Sector to deploy a Centre of Excellence. Power Platform allows organisations to manage all business processes in a single platform. In return the #EmployeeExperience is improved vastly as Power Platform strips away laborious tasks and allows employees to upskill and focus on areas more worthy of their time. As alluded to by Nick, it’s so efficient for “saving time and money”. If you need help getting started with Power Platforms, our experts are here to walk you through it step by step.

‘Hybrid Work Paradox’

Satya spoke of how hugely beneficial Windows 365 will be to a #Reimagined ‘Hybrid Work Paradox’ future complete with work tools and capabilities, that will #Empower the modern worker to upskill like never before. As a Finalist for the Modern Workforce for Frontline Workers at this years’ Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards we were paying close attention to Judson Althoff revealing that 73% of workers believe they ‘need’ to have remote experience, while 63% expect strong collaboration whether in remote or hybrid situations. Certainly, with the arrival of Windows 365 and the exciting new #CollaborativeApps for D365 & #Teams; a hybrid working environment looks like one we can get super excited about.

Althoff, Nadella, Rodney Clark and other keynote speakers over the two days of #MSInspire would mention just how fast the pandemic has accelerated us as a #Ecosystem with #Technology truly coming to the forefront.

Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion

Jenny Lay-Flurrie rounded up night one talking about tackling the disability divide, a cause very close to our hearts here at #TeamAkari. As Hector Minto highlighted in his powerful session “Organisations that embrace best practices for employing and supporting more persons with disabilities in their workforce have outperformed their peers”. More has to be done and in FY22 will be done to bridge the gap using technology. Tackling #Accessibility, #Diversity and #Inclusion is at the core of our central message at Akari and you can download our accessibility Teams chatbot ADI for free here.

Hometown Heroes

It was inspiring as Brad Smith took us into the communities of partners and customers, sharing customer success stories. Brad mentioned how proud he was of the #Ecosystems “persistence” noting that “#Technology would #Empower lives”. Examples such as bringing low-cost broadband to the people of Lindsay Heights, Milwaukee – an urban area which until now, struggled to afford broadband, show the power that technology and persistence can have when put together. It’s a sentiment that Akari backs full heartedly in our mission to #Empower everyone.

Community Session with the GPS UK Team

#MSInspire was a celebration of #Collaboration and working towards a better and fairer #Ecosystem. We are proud to be an #MSPartner and work closely with so many amazing and inspirational customers.

We would also like to extend massive congratulations to all the winners and finalists from the UK community session, especially to our friends in Aveva who we are so proud to be a partner of and work alongside, very well done on your amazing achievement.  It’s been a year of pushing boundaries and working hard to ensure all our customers are serviced with the best service possible.

Arrival of Windows 365

We were barely into the opening Keynote speech from the fantastic Satya Nadella when the arrival of Windows 365 was announced: “Flexible for people, scalable for business and powerful for innovation”. Windows 365 key revolutionary feature is that it will be available not just on Windows devices, but any device, harnessing the power of the cloud.

What is Windows 365?

Think of it as: ‘Hybrid Windows for a hybrid world‘. Windows 365 combines the power and security of the cloud with the versatility and simplicity of a PC to help teams and organizations be more #Agile and #Productive. It’s #Innovative, it’s exciting, it’s everything we have come to expect from an #MSInspire announcement.

As Rodney Clark so well put it: “Here’s to FY22”

#MSInspire #MSPartner #TeamAkari